Politics – Page 5 – Gary Bennett Publishing

One Man’s Journey to Understanding White Privilege

by Gary Bennett

As seen in the Frederick News Post, June 22, 2020

The events of the past few weeks have got me thinking about the term ‘white privilege.’ What does that mean? I’m white but I don’t feel especially privileged. Oh, but I am, and if you are white, you are privileged, too, whether you think so or not.

White privilege is a term that has been around for quite a while but current events have brought it roaring back. White privilege means that white people, either directly or indirectly, have benefitted from the systematic minimization of blacks and other minorities. Whites in this country have the freedom to move, buy, work, play and speak freely without fear of retribution that blacks do not enjoy. Just like the coronavirus, cancer, or heart disease, white privilege can’t be seen, but it is there.

You may say that, “No, I have not done that. I have nothing against minorities.” But I say that if you simply go on with your tidy life and pity those ‘other’ people because you think you are smarter or have worked harder than them to reach your middle-class place in society, then you should think again.

Consider this: Do you look back fondly on your childhood? Did your school seem to have everything it needed? Did you have the opportunity to go to college if you wanted whether you followed that path or not? Did you have some help from friends or family to land that first job? Did the ability to go to college or trade school lead to that first job? Did you have help qualifying for that mortgage you needed to buy your first home? Did a policeman give you a break on that stupid thing you did as a teenager? Did you learn about police brutality through news reports instead of experiencing it first-hand or by second-hand accounts? If you get pulled over for speeding, do you feel confident nothing bad will happen?

If you answered yes to most of these, or even just some of these, then you are the beneficiary of white privilege. How do I know? Because most black people cannot answer yes to any of these questions. And because they can’t, it weighs down their lives in ways we can’t begin to imagine. One black friend told me it’s like pulling along a ten-pound weight everywhere you go with no chance of getting rid of it.

It took me a long time to learn this.

I grew up in Allegany County in far western Maryland in the 60’s and 70’s. It was and still is 92 percent white. Nearby Garrett County, Maryland and Mineral County, West Virginia are 99 percent and 96 percent white respectively. My high school, believe it or not, was 100 percent white. Growing up in this rural area, I had a better chance of interacting with a bear than a black person.

My first real exposure to black people came in college. Even then, Frostburg State University was only 30 percent black. I wish I could say I had some black friends in college, but I really can’t recall any. There was one person I tutored named Reggie that I liked a lot. He was fun and eager to learn. I do remember Reggie and his friends had some customs and cultural habits that were unfamiliar to me and a little bit scary. I didn’t try to understand or get close. I didn’t have to. I went on my merry way.

I didn’t get to know many black people until I began my career in publishing and associations in the early 80’s. I have mostly worked in the Baltimore and Washington DC areas (60 percent and 50 percent black respectively) until I recently ended my career. I’ve also spent a considerable amount of time in most major U.S. cities. Because of my work situation, I got to know many, many black people. In fact, as I think about it, I’ve worked side by side with many more black people than whites over the years.

A constant in my professional life was cross-departmental ‘work teams’. And one thing was certain, no one cared a whit about the racial makeup of these teams. You either got along and got the job done or you didn’t. And if you didn’t, you had to explain why. And believe me, no one would have accepted cultural differences as the reason.

After a steep learning curve, I can say without hesitation that my black teammates turned out to be some of my favorite colleagues and the best people to work with. They had the same work concerns as you or I. The same desire to do well and make a solid contribution. One thing they had that I didn’t was the deeply ingrained need to always be “on.” You see, they could not afford to coast during a meeting or turn work in late. No, that would be professional suicide and only the whites could get away with that. I shake my head now because I remember white colleagues getting away with this time and again. It didn’t seem so bad at the time.

My black colleagues also had many personal concerns that I was not privy to.

More than once I overheard their anguished complaints over the safety of their children, the lack of resources in their schools, the lack of jobs for their friends, not feeling safe when taking a walk in their own neighborhood or driving while black in the wrong neighborhood. Sure, they were the lucky ones, raising themselves up to middle class or better. But, as I grew to learn, they were the exceptions. Their neighbor, with just as much talent as them, couldn’t find a job or get their kids into a better school. None of them wanted a hand out or even a hand up as the saying goes. They simply wanted white folks to figuratively get their knees off their necks, to just give them a chance. I now know white privilege for what it is – the lack of undue obstacles in my way.

I learned this lesson, but it bothers me that many don’t or won’t.

Those that never get out of their mostly white home towns and counties will never be able to learn this first-hand. Of course, their lack of experience and understanding does not hold them back from spouting hurtful and uninformed opinions. That is why you see the fixation on the relatively few looters, the “whataboutism” of violence against cops by criminals (sad but predictable), the crocodile tears of the effect of coronavirus on these large crowds of protesters and worries about reimagining how public safety and police departments should work instead of on the central issues of the day: racial injustice and police brutality.

This lack of first-hand knowledge isn’t just true for rural western Maryland, but all over this great country of ours. Large swaths of citizens have separated themselves from ones not like themselves or at least have taken no tangible steps to get to know them. It’s not really their fault they haven’t been exposed to black folks, but I do believe if they really want to understand their anguish, they have to work harder to educate themselves.

Police officers are no different from the rest of society in this regard. They bring their own implicit and explicit biases to work just like we do. They no doubt prefer faces that look more like themselves. But unlike other professions, they quite often have split-second, life and death decisions to make. That can’t be easy. But if they have chosen this profession, we must demand better of them. The armed forces have mostly done it right. Blacks and other minorities have a very good chance to make a name for themselves. Instead of surplus equipment of war, police agencies all over the country would be better off taking the military’s recruitment and integration practices to heart.

It seems clear the country is finally in the early stages of moving toward a more just future, and those who don’t understand that and grasp at the vestiges of a bygone era risk being left behind and on the wrong side of history.

What Can We Do About Police Brutality?

By Gary Bennett

Gary’s homemade signs for the Frederick Black Lives Matter march.

My wife, Ellen, and I joined 5,000 Frederick County citizens in the peaceful Black Lives Matter march on Friday evening, June 5th, 2020, in downtown Frederick. This was an impressive turnout for a small city like Frederick, and has been repeated in cities large and small all across the nation for weeks now. That is how we know this is a movement. The riots of 1968 swept across America the entire summer after the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. That summer undoubtedly changed America, and this feels the same.

We reject the notion that police brutality is not a white person’s issue. It assuredly affects black people disproportionately, but make no mistake, this is an issue for all of us. Witness the violent assault on peaceful protesters of all hues recently in Lafayette Park in Washington, DC. Despicably, Attorney General Bill Barr authorized the use of tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the unsuspecting crowd that had the temerity to block the president’s path to Saint John’s Church in order for him to obscenely hold aloft a bible to signify who knows what. Domination over peaceful protesters?

As white people, Ellen and I felt we had a duty to show up at the Frederick protest, lend a helping hand and show support to our black neighbors who are so aggrieved. To sit comfortably at home and remain silent is to be complicit in the wrongdoing. That is not right. It was great to see that we were not alone. To my untrained eye, the crowd seemed to be about half white and black.

It is clear that many white people are starting to get it: police brutality is not an infrequent occurrence. A recent ABC News/IPSOS poll shows that three-fourths of those surveyed believe what happened to George Floyd is not an isolated incident but evidence of a broader problem. It took heartbreaking real-time video to get us to this point, but we are here now.

If some police officers perpetrate unneeded violence when the ever-present cameras are rolling, what do they do when they are not? Unfortunately, we know the answer. The list of black victims at the hands of the police is long and well documented. It is clearly not just a few bad apples. If that were the case they would have been weeded out by now.

An oft cited statistic holds that police officers use force against blacks seven times more often than they do against whites even though whites commit the preponderance of crimes. I believe it. Despite what Bill Barr says, the evidence points to systemic racism within police departments. Dating to the Jim Crow south of the early 1900s, police officers automatically associated blackness with danger leading to the use of harsher force than was necessary or used with whites. History is hard to overcome sometimes. Add that to the stew of police machoism, the need for split- second decision-making, and disdain from some citizens, and you have the perfect recipe for unneeded violence.

Of course, we are not talking about all police officers. It is a false narrative that you can’t be for the police if you ever criticize them. A confounding “whataboutism” going around now is “what about all the police gunned down by criminals. Where is the outrage for that?” Unfortunately, violence is what we can expect from some criminals. We can and must expect better from police officers. Fully 95 percent of police officers are professional and want to diffuse tense situations. But in law enforcement, having five percent bad actors is not good enough. They hold life and death in their hands. Good cops know this and barriers must be removed for them to intervene. Peer pressure is a powerful deterrent, maybe the most powerful.

What else can be done?

We can start by immediately firing and charging officers caught on camera perpetrating unneeded violence. Commanders know unneeded violence when they see it. In these clear-cut cases, we should do away with “suspension without pay while we investigate.” The officers will still have their day in court and can petition to get their jobs back if found innocent. There would be no violation of police officers’ due process since no one has a right to a job they are not suited for.
Hiring officers must do a better job in weeding out “warrior” cops and others who have no business behind a badge. Reportedly, Officer Chauvin had 18 complaints filed against him. In most other professions this person would either be fired or minimized to the point of quitting.
The protectors of bad cops are often the police unions. The time is now ripe to negotiate less protections for bad cops. The trade off? More pay for good cops.
Other ideas floating through Congress now should have our support: a national registry of disciplined and fired cops so they can’t join another force, a demilitarization of police departments to no longer automatically receive surplus implements of war, more transparency in police training so the public sees what is being taught and can respond and consult, the discontinuance of choke holds nationwide, a beefing up of civil liability laws against police, a definitive statement from the Supreme Court on what constitutes unconstitutional use of force, and less dependence on police to solve every small problem of society. This is what is meant by “defunding” police departments.

Many of us are heartbroken at the cruelty shown by Officer Chauvin in Minneapolis toward George Floyd, an unarmed and compliant black man. But this tragedy has once and for all ripped off the bandage that was covering a seeping wound. I hope we can all come together to change the culture of brutal and racist policing quickly. My black neighbors have rightly run out of patience.

Crowd gathered at Frederick, MD bandshell on June 5th, 2020 to protest police brutality against blacks.

Is Donald Trump the Dumbest President Ever?

By Gary Bennett

Trump supporters, I know what you’re thinking. Please stay with me. It’s not as bad as you think.

When President Trump suggested that scientists should look into injecting disinfectant into the human body as a means to clean the lungs of covid-19, you may have thought that clinched his standing as the least intelligent president of all time. To be sure, the uncomfortable look on the face of Dr. Birx as she contemplated the style and color of her shoes as Trump looked her way and made his plea was priceless.

But not so! Tempting as it may be to label Mr. Trump as least intelligent president ever, we should remember that we’ve been here before. Well, maybe not to this extent. Just in my lifetime, both George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan suffered from so many malapropisms, verbal tics, lapses in thought and in Reagan’s case, forgetfulness, that their intellectual capacities were likewise questioned. During their presidencies, conventional wisdom among wide swaths of Americans, both supporters and detractors alike, deemed both to be not very bright.

We face the same dilemma today with Mr. Trump. Is he profoundly unintelligent as so many think? Or is he crazy like a fox, continually egging on the political establishment for his own benefit? Or more importantly, does it even matter? After all intellect can’t be the only predictor of presidential greatness. If it was, then smart presidents such as Bill Clinton (Rhodes Scholar and Yale Law School grad) and Jimmy Carter (Naval Academy graduate with distinction and a submarine officer) would be among our greatest presidents. Historians widely agree they are not. Conversely, presidents such as Reagan and Harry Truman were not considered very smart but are ranked highly on the greatness scale.

The examples I list above should pass your smell test that there is not a one-to-one relationship between presidential intelligence and greatness. But it is close! General intelligence has consistently been found to be the one best predictor of positive job performance in a wide range of occupations. Being president is no different.

There has been quite a bit of research done on the subject of presidential intelligence. I’ve read some of it. The most cited study seems to be that of Dean Keith Simonton and published in Political Psychology in 2006. He used “estimated IQ” to rank the presidents. Because most U.S. presidents died long before the advent of actual IQ tests, Simonton and his colleagues estimated presidential IQ based on observed factors from biographies including published works, openness to experience, inventiveness, curiosity, charisma and sophistication. This study garnered quite a bit of press in its day but also featured many detractors. Of course, to accept these findings, you have to believe that presidential historians are trying their level best to shed light on their subjects in an impartial way with no axes to grind (a tall order for many of us, I know.)

The rankings I present here are my own based on my reading of the above-mentioned study and my own reading of many presidential biographies (a hobby of mine).

You’ll note that I did not try to rank Donald Trump. I, like many political observers who are not overly partisan, just don’t know what to make of him. As I mentioned earlier, he is either one of the more intelligent presidents, operating at a level that most of us can’t understand, or he is the least intelligent president of all time. I do suspect it is the latter, but I’m not sure. History will judge.

Finally, it should be noted that all 39 presidents ranked in the study were found to have estimated IQs higher than the population in general so please don’t associate the ten least intelligent presidents with not being smart. Nothing is further from the truth. All of our presidents, by definition, have been smart enough to ascend to the highest office in the land. But, you’ll see, there are no great ones among those with lower intelligence.

Ten Most Intelligent Presidents

Thomas Jefferson – widely accepted by most scholars as brilliant. Principal author of the Declaration of Independence.
John Q. Adams – Highest estimated IQ of all presidents. Prolific writer, speaker, and thinker.
James Madison – Father of the Constitution. Adroitly maneuvered among the top thinkers of the day to put his stamp on the Constitution.
Abraham Lincoln – widely credited with saving the union through his adroit use of power and strategic thinking. Our most gifted orator.
Bill Clinton – Rhodes Scholar who excelled at mastering complex information and explaining it with simple, understandable words.
Woodrow Wilson – Highly respected academic who was president of Princeton University. Strategic thinker who was the father of internationalism.
Theodore Roosevelt – Highly educated and erudite with the ability to present himself as an everyman. Uncanny ability to persuade people to follow his lead. Our most quintessential “leader.”
John Adams – Founding father who adroitly shifted the country, rightly or wrongly, toward political partisanship.
John Kennedy – Had a razor-sharp wit, was highly educated and a respected if not prolific writer. His strategy is credited with saving America from a nuclear exchange with Russia in 1962.
Jimmy Carter – Successful businessman, Naval Academy graduate, and submarine officer. Credited with bringing Egypt and Israel together in late 1970’s. Winner of Nobel Peace Prize.

Ten Least Intelligent Presidents

Andrew Johnson
James Buchanan
Zachary Taylor
Warren Harding
George W. Bush – Despite a Harvard MBA, showed little intellectual curiosity. Not a good speaker. Overly trusting. Would rather delegate than master complex information.
Calvin Coolidge
James Monroe – a plodding speaker and middling intellect of the day. Benefitted almost completely from Jefferson and Madison patronage.
Ulysses Grant – Despite his reputation as Lincoln’s top Civil War general, he was an unimpressive thinker and failed farmer. He was largely an accidental soldier. Was the beneficiary of immense blind luck. Presidency plagued by scandal due to hands-off approach.
Benjamin Harrison
Gerald Ford – An accidental president and unimpressive thinker and speaker. Prone to misspeaking.

Other Notables:

George Washington
Middle of the pack. His physical stature, quiet confidence, and blind luck largely drove his success.

Andrew Jackson
Toward the bottom. A frontiersman with little formal education, he did not distinguish himself in speech or writing. Ruled through intimidation, not with power of thought.

Herbert Hoover
Middle of the pack. Downplayed warning signs of Great Depression. Paralyzed, unable to make big decisions.

Franklyn Roosevelt
Middle of the pack. Despite his larger than life persona, he was mostly the beneficiary of wealth, privilege, and good political instincts. Depended largely on the intelligence of others.

Harry Truman
Middle of the pack. The quintessential everyman was a failed farmer and retailer. He was the beneficiary of the democratic political machine of the day. Thrust into the spotlight by happenstance, not intelligence. But highly regarded as a great president. Able to make tough decisions.

Dwight Eisenhower
Toward the top. A first-rate military mind who nevertheless tended toward intellectual laziness later in life. Widely accepted as a good, but not great president.

Lyndon Johnson
Middle of the pack. Not highly educated or known for deep thinking or introspection. The quintessential political animal.

Richard Nixon
Toward the top. Accepted as a strategic and deep thinker but made the mistake of trusting in others too much. Another political animal, second only to Johnson.

Ronald Reagan
Toward the bottom. Not highly educated or respected as a deep thinker. He was second only to FDR in positive political instincts. Nevertheless, accepted as a good to great president.

George HW Bush
Beneficiary of wealth, upbringing, and a political family. Not known for his speaking or writing capabilities.

Barack Obama
Toward the top. Is verbally eloquent, fluent, and has the ability to inspire and motivate. Constitutional scholar.

Donald Trump
Either crazy like a fox or least intelligent president ever. History will have to judge.

King Trump

By Gary Bennett

The following ditty is sung to the tune of Steve Martin’s 1977 smash hit King Tut. Our favorite president is in the starring role, of course. Apologies to Mr. Martin, one of my all-time favorites. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYbavuReVF4

King Trump

Now when he ran for pres’dent,
He never thought he’d win
Just an infomercial
To get jobs for all his kin.
(King Trump)
How’d you get so lazy?
(Funky Trump)
Your grammar sure is crazy.
Born in New York City,
Isn’t it a pity.
(King Trump).

(King Trump)
Now, if I’d known
That I could not be King,
(King Trump)
I’d taken all my money
And bought my Vlad a ring.
(King Trump)

Never read the Constitution
(Funky Trump)
Have no fear of retribution!
Born in New York City,
People say I’m not so witty
(King Trump)

(Trump, Trump)
Bullshit by the pile,
(Disco Trump, Trump)
Bill Barr sure loves his style,
(Boss Trump, Trump)
Colludin’ all the while
(Rockin’ Trump, Trump)
His fans shout “Trump Sieg Heil!”

He gave his life for racism!
Orangish tint!
Knows 75 words!

Now, when I vote
Please don’t think that I’m a chump,
(King Trump)
I’d rather chew my arm off,
Then to side with ole king Trump.
(King Trump)

He should’a won an Emmy,
(King Trump)
I’ll sign the checks, please lem’me,
(King Trump)
Movin’ to Miami; shootin’ Lysol in my fanny.

He was born a rich tycoon-a, nasty questions clear the room-a,
(King Trump)

The Latest Pandemic: We Refuse to Learn What History Teaches

By Gary Bennett

3D illustration of Coronavirus, virus which causes SARS and MERS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome

Will we ever learn?

Epidemics, plagues and pandemics have been around since the dawn of time. But over and over, government response has fallen heartbreakingly short. Indeed, keeping its citizens safe from enemies foreign and domestic is the main reason we have government in the first place. But when it comes to disease, governments more often than not downplay the threat posed by this insidious enemy.

Don’t be fooled by the flurry of governmental activity happening now surrounding the outbreak of COVID-19. Daily announcements of more and more drastic measures to mitigate spread of this disease don’t change the fact that we are frantically trying to play catch up. It didn’t have to be this way.

Back on January 22^nd President Trump was asked if he was worried about a coming pandemic based upon what was happening in China. Trump responded, “No. Not at all. We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.” Even if you discount his penchant for looking at everything through a political lens and his seemingly intrinsic need to sound authoritative on a topic he obviously knows little about, his carefree stance was horrifying. He held to this position for several precious weeks when we could have been preparing. That point should not be lost. Presidents must measure their words carefully and land on the side of caution, but those are behaviors this president doesn’t much care for.

No president can know everything of course, and we can’t blame them for that. That’s why we have experts in government advising the president on technical and scientific matters regularly. Except in this case we didn’t until very recently.

A week before Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, Obama’s homeland security advisor briefed his incoming counterpart on pandemic threats and how to respond to them based on the previous administration’s response to outbreaks of swine flu, Ebola, and Zika. The briefing covered limits to international travel, compromising of supply chains, tanking of the stock market, overburdening of our health care system, and all framed by the premise that a vaccine would not be ready for many months—the same situation we are in today. Falling on deaf ears, National Security Advisor John Bolton eventually shut down the National Security Council’s unit for preparing and responding to pandemics. Then, the new administration’s official in charge of spearheading responses to infectious threats quit and was not replaced. We should not forget that both actions egregiously inhibited our initial national response to COVID-19.

It is no secret—unless you are perpetually affixed to Fox News—that this administration’s response to the latest pandemic has been woefully inadequate, especially in the beginning when it would have made all the difference. But unfortunately, this administration is not alone. One only has to look at the two most virulent international pandemics in modern U.S. history. In both cases we had a chance to lead and mitigate the consequences but fell woefully short: the HIV/AIDS pandemic of 1981 and Spanish flu pandemic of 1918.

In 1981 Ronald Regan (R) was in the White House. When the HIV/AIDS epidemic hit, the Reagan administration’s first reaction was to treat it as a joke. In a new documentary short called When AIDS Was Funny, posted by Vanity Fair, audio of press conferences reveals Ronald Reagan’s press secretary, Larry Speakes, joking about the now well-known HIV/AIDS epidemic and assuring the country that Reagan was doing nothing about it, nor should he be. The administration assured America that the disease could only be slowed by ethical behavior that could not be legislated. The perpetrators of the disease – gay men – would realize this and adopt proper lifestyle changes eventually. How terribly shortsighted this policy was.

History shows this inaction was an undeniable stain on the Reagan presidency. It took deaths by celebrities like Rock Hudson, deaths of thousands of heterosexual Americans, and deaths due to transfusions from tainted blood by children like Ryan White to change Reagan’s mind and get him moving. By the time he finally addressed the crisis in earnest in 1987 – six years after its discovery – 23,000 Americans had died from the disease. To date, 35 million people have died from HIV/AIDS and its complications worldwide. How many would have been spared with more timely, thoughtful and decisive action by the U.S. president, one who did not pander to his yuck-it-up base?

In 1918 the U.S. government badly handled the Spanish flu pandemic, responding to it much as the current administration has to COVID-19. Woodrow Wilson (D) was in the middle of his second term as president. World War I was raging in Europe but prospects of an armistice were growing day by day. When the Spanish flu hit first in New York with a deadliness that few had ever seen, officials downplayed the threat. They were more concerned with keeping up morale for the war effort. That decision proved disastrous. As more deaths occurred, panic spread and people distrusted the government more and more. Americans witnessed scenes reminiscent of the European Black Death they had heard about from stories passed down from their grandparents.

Amazingly, Wilson never released a public statement on the pandemic. Surgeon General Rupert Blue said, “There is no cause for alarm if proper precautions are observed.” Another top health official dismissed it as “ordinary influenza by another name.” Of course, it was not. Spanish flu had a mortality rate of 2 percent — much higher than seasonal influenza strains, and similar to some early estimates about COVID-19. By 1942 when a vaccine was finally licensed, 675,000 Americans had died and over 50 million worldwide,

In a chilling parallel to today, if a newspaper reported the truth, the government threatened it. The Jefferson County Union in Wisconsin warned about the seriousness of Spanish flu on Sept. 27, 1918. Within days, an Army general began prosecution against the paper under a wartime sedition act, claiming it had “depressed morale.” In an ironic twist of fate, President Wilson even contracted the disease, only to eventually recover and be felled by a stroke a few months later. Historians agree that his months-long recuperation from Spanish flu hurt negotiations to end World War I.

We will get through the COVID-19 pandemic like we have all the others. People will suffer and many will die, but this is not the end of the world. Most biblical scholars can assure you of that. We can only hope that this and future administrations will finally learn the lessons that history tries to teach us over and over again: take it seriously and prepare as soon as possible. As soon as we recover from this disaster, we must insist that government prepare for the next one, which is sure to come. Politicians must listen.

Look Out, Virginia — There’s a New Sheriff in Town and She Doesn’t Much Like Guns

By Gary Bennett

It never ceases to amaze me how much gun owners care about their guns.

When I try to think of something that I enjoy so much that if it were curtailed in any way, I would take off for the state capital with my compatriots to lodge a protest, I come up empty. But that is exactly what gun rights supporters did in Richmond on January 20 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, no less.

You certainly have to give them credit. What the gun rights supporters did in Richmond was undeniably impressive. Over 20,000 made their way to the Virginia state capital from all over the country to voice their displeasure with the gun safety measures working their way through the newly Democrat-controlled legislature. That is democracy at its best.

But why did so many have to ruin it by dressing up in fatigues and carrying their pistols on their hips and long guns across their chests? This unfortunate attempt at intimidation and bullying took away from what was otherwise a sound message: please don’t infringe upon our constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

Despite organizers’ pleas for demonstrators to wear regular clothes so as to not appear to be gun-crazy lunatics, I’m afraid that is exactly what happened. The temptation to put on a menacing show proved too great. Thank goodness the other side stayed away, focusing instead on working the phones to promote their point of view. One could easily imagine another Charlottesville had the two sides been toe to toe in Richmond. And kudos to the state police who proactively rounded up three American terrorists bent on doing harm at the protest.

Of course, 20,000 protesters pale in comparison to 2.4 million Virginians who voted in large part for increased gun safety in the 2019 state election, thereby flipping the legislature blue. The new silent majority in Virginia spoke and spoke loudly: there is a new sheriff in town and you’ll now be checking your guns at the door.

Virginia’s Republican-controlled legislature made a mockery of the governor’s call last fall to discuss gun safety in a special session by ending the proceedings in 90 minutes. Students of government and history could easily see the blue wave coming after that happened. Voters in the middle on both sides tend not to put up with dereliction of duty like this, and they didn’t.

You can say that the rich treasure trove of progressive voters in Northern Virginia overwhelmed the rest of the state, and you would be partially right, but the truth is the blue wave hit all parts of the state. Anyway, aren’t Northern Virginians are just as much Virginians as those in the rural western parts of the state? How sad that many on the right called for Northern Virginia to be annexed into Washington, DC because of this change in political fortune.

There has also been a rush of over 110 communities in rural Virginia to declare themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries. A few counties even entertained the idea of leaving the state for the greener pastures of gun-loving, ruby red West Virginia, which is surprisingly constitutional. These developments were funny but sad at the same time.

Having their community declared a Second Amendment sanctuary may make gun enthusiasts feel better, but such a declaration has no force of law, just like declaring a city an immigration sanctuary has no force of law. It is a waste of time and confuses people into thinking they can ignore gun laws coming out of Richmond. Nothing could be further from the truth and some people will unfortunately find out the hard way.

Besides the “I want it my way or I’m leaving” mentality, what bothers me most about many gun owners is that they only see the perceived infringement of their own rights. What about the rights of the rest of us to feel safe in our communities? What about the families torn apart by gun violence?

We know you are not the perpetrators, but most gun owners never seem to offer any solutions or seem willing to even join in the discussion. It would be so refreshing to hear gun owners say, “Hey, they’re right. This is our responsibility. We have to do something. We can’t go on this way.” Sadly, that never happens. No, they are happy to blame mental illness, ignoring the fact that only 23 percent of shooters have such a diagnosis according to the CDC. So, please see this political ploy for what it is: deflection. Once the furor of the latest bout of gun violence dies down, meaningful mental health system reform is quickly forgotten and on we move.

There is no doubt this new political reality must be very unsettling to rural Virginians. I lived in rural Southwestern Virginia for many years before moving to Frederick in 1988 so I get that. Gun ownership and sportsmanship is a way of life. I think most reasonable people understand and appreciate that. The good news is that no one is coming to take away Virginians’ guns. That is a scare tactic. Don’t fall for it. No mainstream politician is even suggesting such a thing. Even if they did, it would be impossible to implement. What do gun owners think – that a small band of FBI agents or state police officers will descend on their communities house by house to confiscate guns? Please.

Let’s be equally clear that regulation is not infringement. The Second Amendment says the right of the people to keep and bear arms “shall not be infringed,” not that it “shall not be regulated.” Even the first four words of the amendment “a well-regulated militia” demands regulation. The Supreme Court has upheld the Second Amendment as pertaining to ordinary citizens (“the people”) and not state national guards as many will argue, but that doesn’t make the Second Amendment absolute. None of our rights are absolute. The courts have upheld time and again that all amendments are subject to reasonable regulation.

As much as I might like to, I can’t make up and publish vicious lies about my worst enemy designed to harm their name without risking dire consequences. Free speech is regulated but that doesn’t infringe upon my right to exercise it reasonably. Likewise, requiring some training before a person can carry a concealed weapon, requiring a universal background check before any gun can be purchased, and limiting handgun purchases to one a month (who are these people?) infringes on no one’s right to bear arms.

The NRA has done a wildly successful job of convincing gun owners that if you give just a little bit, the government will come back for more. History shows time and again that is not the case. Once the party in power gets what they initially want, they back off and move on to other things. The rash of gun regulations now making their way through the Virginia legislature is due to pent up demand and the suicidal policy of the last legislature to not consider any gun regulation whatsoever. That is not where most Virginians are. If the previous legislature had governed from the middle-right on gun regulation instead of the hard right, I believe they would still be in power. I also believe the Democrats are making the same mistake right now from the left. They are pushing for too much, too quickly. Republicans will have an excellent opportunity to make this case to voters later this year. We are a 50/50 country and Virginia is a 50/50 state that changes legislatures every single year. When will we learn to govern that way?

This may come as a surprise to many and the fanatics will deny it but most gun owners support reasonable regulation. A recent NPR-PBS Newshour-Marist poll shows that 89 percent of Americans support enhanced background checks, including 84 percent of Republicans. And, according to a Fox News poll, two-thirds of Americans support an assault weapons ban and nearly three-fourths support a national “red flag” law. Yes, Fox News.

Unfortunately, you will hear the exact opposite from the NRA. The NRA claims 5 million members, but as a former association executive, I can assure you that number is probably inflated. Even if it is not, there are 80 million American gun owners. To say the NRA represents the gun-owning public is absolutely wrong and proven in national poll after national poll that examines gun issues. So please, don’t be taken in by their propaganda. We can have our guns and regulate them, too.

Gary Bennett is a political scientist, historian, and freelance writer living in Frederick, MD.

Thank you, Democrats

By Gary Bennett

As seen in the Frederick News Post, Saturday, January 4, 2020.

Thank you for doing your job.

Especially to the House Democrats in Republican-leaning districts who could have easily abstained or voted not to impeach, knowing that more than enough votes were already available. That is the kind of courage, conscientiousness and placing the country before party we need out of Congress but is sorely lacking. Some may be risking their seats but did their duty anyway. The country voted overwhelmingly for Congressional oversight of the president in the 2018 midterms – even in many Trump districts – and that’s exactly what we’ve gotten. Elections have consequences after all, as many Trump supporters are fond of saying. You can be sure that reasonable Republicans are afraid for their country and are glad to hide behind Congressional oversight from the Democrats and demonize them anyone. Kind of the best of both worlds!

And thank goodness for this new-found oversight. Under a Republican House, do you think Mr. Trump’s wrongdoing would never have seen the light of day? And, it doesn’t even matter that Mr. Trump won’t be removed from office. The Senate Republicans who privately loathe Mr. Trump will not bring themselves to do that, of course. Call me naive, but I believe in his heart of hearts, Mr. Trump knows he is dodging a bullet and will no longer seek foreign help for his 2020 political prospects. A win for all of us!

But Senate Republicans had better be careful. Many Americans will not put up with a sham trial. Just ask Virginia Republicans who made a mockery of a special session the governor called on gun safety earlier this year. Their dereliction of duty cost them dearly at the polls and I believe the same will happen to Senate Republicans in 2020. For all you Trump supporters who find this entire affair a sordid miscarriage of justice, I have just one question: if a Democratic president had done what Mr. Trump has admitted to doing, would you still feel it is not impeachable? As a Democrat who supported the impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998 because we cannot permit anyone lying to Congress in this country, I unfortunately already know the answer to that one.

Historical Open Letter from President Donald J. Trump

My fellow patriotic Americans (and all you losers without MAGA hats),

I, President Donald John Trump, am sacrificing a bit of my executive time with Fox News today to announce that I hereby resign as your favorite president. It’s been a fun and perfect three years demonizing the lefties, allies, Gold Star Families, and the so-called free press but all good things must come to an end. Just ask my three Secretaries of Defense, three Secretaries of Labor, three Chiefs of Staff, and of course my personal fixer, Michael Cohen, who can be reached in federal prison in upstate New York. I swear I was going to clean up the swamp and appoint the best people but every person I appointed turned out to be a crooked loser.

It has come to pass that I find myself about to be impeached, and as much as I like to be the center of attention, I don’t want to be lumped in with those phonies Bill Clinton and Andrew Jackson, Johnson or whatever his name was. I’d rather dramatically ride off into the sunset on my personal chopper, Marine One. No one’s ever done that before and can you imagine the ratings! Plus, those enemies of the people—the lamestream media, won’t have me to kick around anymore! This I can tell you.

Can you believe it? Me, impeached? The Chosen One! AND, I’M DOING SUCH A GREAT JOB! I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, though. Bill’s economy in 1998 was even better and we were at peace. You saw what they did to him. At least many of the same senators who screwed him have come to see that impeachment is not the way. I’m looking at you Mitch and Lindsey! It is serious business lying about an extramarital affair and getting caught so I guess Slick Willy got what he deserved. Better just to be upfront about it. Hell, if the evangelicals don’t care about extramarital affairs and grabbing female body parts, why would anyone?

A lot of people are saying you just can’t trust those Dems to see things the right way. They’ve made up some malarkey about their congressional oversight duty and impeachment being in the constitution. SAD!!! When I smartly and bravely bring up words like “coup” and “treason”, WHICH IS MY RIGHT, they have the audacity to lie and point out that treason only applies to aiding and abetting a wartime enemy, not criticizing the president, and that coups are things that happen in sh*thole countries at the end of a gun, not in countries like ours that depend on that pesky rule of law. But I feel better now that my thirteen-year old son explained to me that Republicans will still be in charge. I could have sworn those Dem traitors Nervous Nancy and Crooked Hillary would take over. Why else would they do this? What’s in it for them? We all like a good civil war, of course, but if I can’t be Supreme Commander, why bother?

Okay, maybe I should have reported that Russian meddling thing in the 2016 election that I obviously knew about but did nothing to stop. But the Russians were for me and anyone would have taken that meeting. And by the way, I’m not a puppet. Hillary’s the puppet! I fired that giant Lurch Jim Comey to make it all go away and what did that get me? Just more grief and low-energy, sad sack Robert Mueller and his so-called investigation that dragged on for over a year. He had the audacity to not exonerate me and even charge obstruction. But no matter, I just claimed I was cleared and my loyal subjects ate it up. Plus, my fat personal lawyer, I mean Attorney General, Bill Barr, backed me up, too.

And sure, I obviously asked Russia, Ukraine, and China to get some dirt on that scumbag, Joe Biden, and in the case of Ukraine, withheld some military funds until they did but that was my money anyway! And I had to match the Dems before they meddled in the 2020 election by trying to make sure every citizen, especially the Blacks and Hispanics, suburban moms, and manufacturing workers whose jobs never came back, exercised their right to vote. We can’t let low-IQ Joe Biden take over anyway. He’s not smart enough to keep America interesting and on edge by constantly belittling half the population and pitting them against each other. Can you imagine how boring things will be under Sleepy Joe? And his family – what a bunch of losers and hangers-on!

I’d like to take this opportunity to recap our accomplishments over the last three years. We didn’t get much accomplished, okay? Well, other than some tax cuts for the rich, executive orders that will get reversed when the Dems get their chance and of course all those federal judges and Supreme Court justices. Mitch sure pulled a fast one when he prevented the Obama/Clinton gang from having their choice back in 2016. That was my idea, by the way. I don’t know Merrick Garland but I hear he is a nice fellow – just not Supreme Court material like my guy Brett Kavanaugh. With me and Brett, I hope women have at least learned that their hysterical, lying, sexual misconduct charges will get them nowhere. We did have a fun government shutdown and took some money from the Defense Department to start on my beautiful Southern border wall. There are some bad hombres trying to get into this country and I’m proud to say we have slowed them down even without shooting them in the legs, WHICH IS MY RIGHT! If people want into this country so badly, they should just pay their way in at Ellis Island like my grandfather did!

I hope we can count on all those judges Mitch and I are appointing, but you never know. Some of those losers claim independence from their Dear Leader and rely on that pesky rule of law. Just ask that deep state flunky John Roberts who voted to keep the ACA intact even though we were sure to eventually come up with something much better. I did my best, though. I kept ACA underfunded so rates would soar and declined to defend it in court.

To tell you the truth, I wasn’t going to leave in 2020 anyway, no matter what the crooked election said. Probably not in 2024 either as long as my perfect health held up. It is just not possible for me to be voted out after all that I have done for this country! You may have heard that I took a pay cut to be your leader. No, as a stable genius and with more military knowledge that all those generals of mine combined, there is no way I could be removed from the White House. But just think of all the fun we will be missing in January 2021 when that stiff Mike Pence has to turn over the keys to Sleepy Joe. Wouldn’t you have rather had me up there saying “I don’t think so, Joe.” My people were already working on that speech.

But, in my great and unmatched wisdom, I’ve come to the conclusion that you just don’t deserve me. That’s why I’m walking way. What’s next for me, you ask? I have three words for you – Trump News Network. That’s right, we’ll finally have media we can trust. I’ll be the only correspondent of course because why would I share air time with anyone else if I don’t have to? Once I became my own press secretary things went much better, don’t you think? Even those ingrates at Fox News were starting to turn on me. They were starting to ask some pushy questions and not doing the job they were paid to do. The last thing I’ll do before I go is remove the Fox News line item from the Republican National Committee budget. That’ll teach them.

So, it is with a full heart, terrific hair and tan, and smokin’ hot daughter and wife that I bid you farewell. Try to get along without me for a while. I said this before that foreign loser Arnold What’s-his-name did – I’ll BE BACK, which is my right.

Don’t worry about me, MAGA friends. I’ve already pardoned myself. Just waiting on that superb ass kisser Mike Pence to read it later.

Gary Bennett writes from an alternate universe where everyone, including President Trump, has come to their senses.

Political Unkindness–How We Got Here and What We Can Do

By Gary Bennett

Of course it had to happen this way. The impeachment hearings kicked off on the same week as World Kindness Day. I’m ashamed to say that I had never heard of World Kindness Day. It goes back to 1998 and is devoted to small and large acts of kindness. How quaint in this day and age, right?

It’s difficult to think of anything less kind than these impeachment hearings. Depending on your point of view, the hearings are either a desperate witch hunt to overturn the results of the 2016 presidential election or a sober, constitutional investigation of reported abuses of power by the president. Democrats and Republicans are pitted against each other in a death struggle of epic proportions—not so much in a search for truth but rather to see who can come out on top. It’s always about the politics now. For this impeachment go-round—they happen about every 20 years now—Democrats control the hearings and have positioned themselves as the agents of truth. Republicans are left to mostly attack the process and rail against the public servants who are providing the testimony.

The country went through the same experience in 1998 but roles were completely reversed. Republicans held the House and controlled the hearings. They went on to impeach President Clinton for obstruction of justice—lying to Congress about his sexual escapades in the White House. The Democrats were left to complain about a witch hunt and unfairness to the president. My how things come around! Clinton was later acquitted in the Senate just as President Trump will be acquitted.

In 1973 when the Nixon impeachment hearings were dominating TV, things were much different. Politicians and the American people seemed to be more open minded. There were such things as moderate and liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats. Those species have gone the way of the dodo bird, of course. There was no witch’s brew of smirking talking heads on TV and, of course, no Internet. President Nixon was pushed by his FELLOW REPUBLICANS to resign rather than face certain impeachment and conviction. That has as much chance of happening today as a cold front settling over Hades.

I can’t help wondering where it all went so wrong. When did party start coming before country? Why can’t politicians, and more importantly Americans, with different life outlooks trust each other more and show at least a modicum of kindness towards each other? There are many first-hand accounts of U.S. senators being very accommodating and kind to each other behind closed doors. It’s a small, exclusive club after all. But when the cameras start rolling you can forget all that. A politician can’t appear to be a compromiser and not a fighter. I wonder how they sleep at night sometimes. Does this all mean that we are the problem? Are politicians simply playing a part that we demand? I don’t know, but I do know this ugly phenomenon took a turn for the worse about 30 years ago.

I believe the election of Bill Clinton in 1992 jump started the unkindness era. James Monroe ushered in the Era of Good Feelings after the War of 1812. Clinton gets to own the start of this new era. Back then a lot of people saw him for what he was and said so—a purely political animal, sometimes unscrupulous, a little too slick, and a well-known womanizer. He wasn’t highly respected, and like Mr. Trump, was elected by a minority of Americans. It also didn’t help that this baby boomer, small-state Southern governor defeated a highly respected war hero from the Greatest Generation. George H.W. Bush adroitly guided America through the first Gulf War but was undone by courageously bucking his own party by raising taxes when most economists agreed they needed to be raised. He would have even survived that had he not welched on his “read my lips—no new taxes” pledge. Just like Nixon, Republicans turned on him. It also didn’t help that the country went into a recession in 1992. Mr. Clinton represented the possibility of an improving economy so we took a flyer on him. Thankfully, he and the economy improved enough to drive his reelection in 1996.

So if you think the never-ending criticism of President Trump is unprecedented, you’d be sadly mistaken. Presidents Clinton, the second Bush, and Obama all faced withering pockets of what can only be called hatred. The only new thing now is that the current president hates many of us right back. He gleefully insults and demonizes his detractors and is unconcerned with being presidential and rising above it all. His fans eat it up. I vividly remember the presidencies of Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and all the rest. To my eyes and ears, none faced the vitriol that has been hurled at the last four.

Another stake in the heart of kindness is the rise of the so-called news channels with a point of view. Many forget that Fox News and MSNBC did not exist until relatively recently. We had CNN back in the day, and believe it or not, it was seen as a trusted, middle of the road provider of straight news. In fact, I’m not sure the first George Bush could have led American and the world through the first Gulf War without CNN. Today, Americans, for better or worse, can get their news delivered through a prism of like-minded talking heads who make no pretense at bi- or nonpartisanship. I think it’s far worse.

Another factor is the culture war. Up until the 90’s and Clinton, divisive cultural issues did not play an unnaturally large role in national politics. Sure, there was vigorous debate about Johnson’s “Great Society” initiatives such as civil rights, Social Security and Medicare. The Supreme Court upheld abortion rights in 1973 and even Republican stalwart Richard Nixon pushed through sweeping environmental laws including the establishment of the EPA that same year. But the country eventually came together. Sure, many pockets of Americans did not like these measures but they did not demonize the proponents. Now, many Americans, particularly conservative Americans, feel like their way of life—the American way of life they remember from their childhood— is threatened and slowly being taken away. To them, gun control, abortion, equal rights, immigrants at the border, taking God out of school, gay marriage, the me-too movement, and many other cultural touchpoints are worth fighting against to their last breath. To them, collateral damage along the way is just that.

Finally, I think the biggest driver of discord and hatred is the rise of the Internet and social media after the turn of the century. Even worse than the cable news channels, social media makes no pretense at fact checking or ensuring the truth is told. Anybody with a conspiracy theory or outright lie they want broadly circulated will find their audience and it will be amplified to a degree unknown in the last century.

And when the lies and conspiracy theories come via social media from the highest levels of government, what are everyday Americans to do? It seems quaint now to suggest we turn off our phones or at least ignore the worst of the worst. But I hope you will join me in at least doing this one simple thing: do not forward or share anything that demonizes or insults the other side. What good does that do anyway? It only causes the other side to dig in more. Studies have shown that it is nearly impossible to change the minds of the other side once opinions have been formed and acted upon. It might make you feel good to share that snarky post but to me it is the height of laziness. If you want to get a point across, research it and write it yourself.

Oh, and you can also join me in turning off or at least limiting cable news viewership. There is no doubt they have a point of view, an agenda to support, and an axe to grind. And it’s also undeniably entertaining. But, please consider getting your entertainment elsewhere. You may not completely trust the network news and newspapers but they are undoubtedly a better choice than cable news. I know first-hand that both entities support highly stringent quality control measures, are bound by professional standards and ethics, hire highly educated professionals, and try to present both sides of every argument (as long as you avoid the editorials, which are clearly labeled, by the way.) And no doubt they sometime fail. But it’s not for lack of trying. These are simple steps we can all take to help make us better, kinder, more thoughtful citizens.

The Senate is Broken–You Can Blame Mitch McConnell

By Gary Bennett

The Capitol reflectred in a nearby pool.

As seen in the Frederick News-Post Monday, September 23, 2019

There is no shortage of important legislation the country wants, the Democrat-led House has passed (much with substantial bipartisan support), and the Republican-led Senate refuses to act on. At last count, 127 different bills are languishing in the hands of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who has the absolute power to bring legislation to the floor of the Senate. Or not.

It’s the “or not” that has vexed Democrats and most Americans of both parties who want something done right now about many issues especially gun violence and election security. And it’s not even close.

In the case of gun violence, a recent NPR-PBS Newshour-Marist poll shows that 89% of Americans support enhanced background checks, including 84% of Republicans. Even the Republican lieutenant governor in ruby red Texas who boasts a 100% NRA rating says we must include private “stranger-to-stranger” gun sales in background checks. And, according to a Fox News poll, two-thirds of Americans support an assault weapons ban and nearly three-fourths support a national “red flag” law. That’s right – Fox News. If you are a gun-loving Republican who thinks nothing should be done about gun violence, you can be as stubborn as you want. Just know that you are now in the minority of your own party.

In the case of election security, a 2018 Cooperative Congressional Election Study found that over 75% of both Democrats and Republicans favor such measures as keeping a paper trail for each vote and performing a post-election audit even if it slows down results reporting. Whether you hold President Trump accountable or not, the Mueller Report makes it crystal clear, and politicians in both parties agree, that Russia most certainly meddled in the 2016 election and intends to do so again in 2020. And, individual states just don’t have the money or resources to combat this themselves.

So, how can Mitch McConnell be a one-man roadblock to the things Americans want? Very simply because he can. The Senate allows him to. The Senate majority leader holds astonishing power, none of which is laid out in the Constitution. Chief among these powers is the ability to set the agenda for the body, decide when it is in session, and decide which measures will be debated and voted on. One person decides all this and more. Whether by design or neglect the Founders did not address how the Senate would run itself or who would be in charge. Appointing leaders among Senate members and the power they wield has developed gradually and organically since about 1920.

Mr. McConnell has refused to take up House-passed legislation on hot-button issues because he says the president has not told him what bills he will support. This is a dangerous game to play with an erratic president who changes his position from one day to the next. Mr. McConnell’s stance precludes senators from debating and voting on legislation that is currently favored by most Americans and effectively transfers more power to the executive branch and away from Congress. This is not what the Founders wanted. Congress was always meant to be a co-equal branch, and even “first among equals” in the parlance of Thomas Jefferson.

To be fair, the Senate was always meant to be a calming influence on the House and the vagaries of shifting popular opinion. George Washington called it the “saucer that cools the tea.” The Founders provided that senators would stand for election every six years while representatives would stand every two years, making them more susceptible to short term swings in popular opinion while the Senate could afford to take the long view.

So, in one sense you can say that the Senate is doing exactly what it is supposed to do in regards to gun violence and election security. It is cooling the hot debate emanating from the House. But in another sense the Senate could just as effectively cool the tea by working with the House on compromise legislation and then bringing the legislation up for debate and subsequently voting it down if that is its desire. That is how it is supposed to work. But in this dysfunctional political climate in which we find ourselves, this is unlikely to happen. Many senators simply do not want an unpopular vote on their record. It is more politically expedient to simply not take up the issue. Mr. McConnell does not want to risk angering this mercurial president by forcing a veto and possible override.

This idea that you can’t consider legislation unless you know exactly how the president feels about it is a relatively new historical phenomenon and not a very attractive one. The president typically sets the broad national agenda and Congress attempts to follow it through legislative action. When you go back in history to the introduction of the Senate majority leader position in 1925 with Calvin Coolidge (R) in the White House, there have been 30 instances of the Senate majority leader belonging to the same party as the president. This did not stop Congress from doing its job and sending legislation to the president he might not like. According to the Congressional Record, in these 30 different Congresses, a total of 1,143 bills came to the president from a Senate controlled by the same party and were vetoed. Forty-four were overridden by Congress. Presumably the presidents didn’t like the 1,143 bills sent to them, but Congress sent them anyway. This is how our democracy is supposed to work. The president vetoed them as he had every right to do. But Congress overrode some of them, which is their right. Under the stewardship of Mitch McConnell, this Congressional right has been stopped in its tracks.

The majority leader has no constitutional right to withhold legislation from being considered. He has the right to do this by Senate rule and Senate rule alone. Those rules can be changed. Because he has taken political gamesmanship to a whole new level, it is hard to make the case that Mitch McConnell is still a patriot. He may have enjoyed that status at one time but no more. He is now derisively known as Moscow Mitch and clearly and unabashedly puts party over country just like when he said that he would do everything in his power to make sure Barack Obama was a one-term president even before he took office. While most political opponents wish a new president well, as was done with Mr. Trump, Mr. McConnell was proud to blindly sabotage Mr. Obama’s agenda whether it made sense for America or not.

All of us had the chance to vote for Mr. Trump or his opponent for president in 2016. Like it or not he is president now and has the constitutional right to shape foreign and domestic policy and represent all of us on the world stage. However, not many of us, and certainly no Maryland citizen, got a chance to vote for Mr. McConnell or his opponent in the 2014 Kentucky senatorial election. And we certainly have no voice on who the leaders of the Senate will be. Putting it into terms that Mr. McConnell will understand, his actions (or more precisely his lack of action) has made us disenfranchised voters, and as such we now have every right to meddle in the Kentucky Senate election in 2020.

Since Mr. McConnell is a leading proponent of money-is-free-speech, which helped introduce dark money into politics and all the vitriol that comes with it, I invite all Maryland citizens who feel that Mr. McConnell has abused his power, is ambivalent to the will of the people, and is kowtowing too much to this erratic president to join me and make a donation to the campaign of his 2020 Kentucky senatorial opponent, Amy McGrath (D), a former 20-year Marine Corps fighter pilot at https://amymcgrath.com/. Then we should write to our own senators asking that the Senate curtail the power of majority leader, no matter the party, starting with the next Congress in 2021 before this sad spectacle repeats itself. The Senate gave the majority leader this unfettered power and they can and should take it away. A better model to guide the activities of the Senate would be a panel of three senior senators from each party. Ties would be broken by the vice president. This would still give the majority party the upper hand but take such crucial decision making out of the hands of one person not elected by the vast majority of Americans.